You want Shusaku? You get Shusaku!

The small handful of people who have been to the site seem to really like the Shusaku game review. I figure that I'll just start going through his existing game records and commenting on what I can see in the games. I apologize for the inevitable mistakes. I feel like I have a strong understanding of the game but am also far, far away from mastery. Since this commentary is aimed at kyu players I should be able to offer some insight into what is going on. I would greatly appreciate any stronger players who might want to contribute to our collective understanding of this beautiful game. If you are just joining us then please look at the previous game record of Shusaku's that I commented on last week.

Now, lets get into the next game. This is also from 1839 when Shusaku was ten years old. His opponent is a 3 dan player. Remember that this is before the invention of komi so games could be tied and taking black was a huge advantage.

Dia. 1

Here we have a fairly standard classical fuseki with all initial stones being played on the 3-4 point. The pincer at 6 is fairly loose so black feels comfortable playing tenuki to enclose the corner at 7. I have a hard time deciding whether 8 is good or not. It seems very large to extend down the left, establishing a base while also reducing the value of black's enclosure. This also increases, albeit indirectly, the pressure on black's stone in the upper right as it it is no longer possible to directly attack the white pincer. If black encloses the corner at 8 then white can enclose his own corner in the lower right. On the other hand it is common thinking that allowing black to enclose two corners is a little slow for white, who is already behind by a move, so perhaps white 8 is appropriate. When black attacks at 9 I feel some apprehension though, especially as black 9 is very big, being an extension from the black shimari in the lower left.

White 10 and black 11 are generally considered a little slow in modern thinking. Regardless of that they remain solid moves. Perhaps the efficiency is not as high as it could be but most of that difference is made up by the solid nature of the shape created by the diagonal extension. White jumps to 12 and it looks like we will have a fight on our hands. Black would like to settle his stones and build up the lower left corner while attacking 6 and 12. White will look to harass black's group while leading 6 and 12 into the center and solidifying territory along the top.

Dia. 2

Now we see how this fight played out, black peeps at 13 to make the white stones heavy and then slides into the corner to try to get eyes. White 16 and 18 are very sharp, allowing white to destroy any potential eye space black might have found on the side. White reinforces the top with 24 and Shusaku wastes no time attacking at 25 and 27. These are very good, basic, attacking moves. Note how well 25 and 27 coordinate with the black enclosure below. White naturally counter attacks at 29 and black attaches at 29. This fight is about to get very complicated but I think we can follow it. While the black stones are weak they have a move at C18 that will get them two eyes. While simply surviving like this would represent a loss, the ability to fall back and live allows black to fight to the limit. Remember also that the white group is also weak. Black should be able to use the aji available to craft an acceptable result.

Dia. 3

This is a beautiful sequence that demonstrates the prover 'There is no ko at the beginning of the game.' The meaning of this proverb is that if a ko emerges at the beginning there are no ko threats so whoever captures the ko first will simply ignore any threat and finish the ko. Black pushes through with 31 & 33 and then turns to cut at 35. Then black continues to push and white is forced to start a ko to save his stones. Black captures the ko first and then white makes a very serious local threat at 46. I just said there are no ko threats in the beginning but this is a local threat that deals with the ko specifically. If black fills the ko at 34 then white will cut at 47 and capture the whole group connected to the ko. Black has no choice but to connect at 47. Fortunately for black he also has a local ko threat. If white ignores 49 to connect the ko then black will cut at 50 and kill the white stones outright. After this white takes the best option available by pressing at 52 but, like the proverb says, there is no ko at the beginning of the game and black fills it to take the corner.

This result is actually fairly close to even. Black has taken a large corner in the upper left but so has white in the upper right. Black's five stones in the lower left map out a very large territory but the white wall on the top coordinates well with the upper right. Since black has sente I think the game is slightly better for him so far but, again, my analysis may be somewhat off. Hope you have enjoyed this series. Continue with the game in the next post.